Method and apparatus for managing short message

ABSTRACT

It is determined whether a short message locked. The short message is in a locked short message storage area if it is determined that the short message locked. A locked short message session containing the short message is displayed in a short message display interface. The short message display interface displays the locked short message session and an unlocked short message session containing another short message stored in an unlocked short message storage area. The locked short message storage area is different from the unlocked short message storage area.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of International Application No.PCT/CN2014/090678, filed Nov. 10, 2014. This application claims thebenefit and priority of Chinese Application No. 201310634010.6, filedNov. 29, 2013. The entire disclosures of each of the above applicationsare incorporated herein by reference.

FIELD

The present disclosure relates to computer techniques and to a methodand apparatus for managing a short message.

BACKGROUND

This section provides background information related to the presentdisclosure which is not necessarily prior art.

With the development of information technology, more and more users sendshort messages using terminals. Some short messages may include privateinformation of a user. Therefore, in order to protect user's privacy,some short messages are locked. As such, there are two kinds of shortmessages, locked short messages and unlocked short messages. It isimportant to manage different kinds of short messages to improve user'sexperience.

SUMMARY

This section provides a general summary of the disclosure, and is not acomprehensive disclosure of its full scope or all of its features.

According to various embodiments of the present disclosure, a method formanaging a short message is provided. The method includes:

determining whether a short message should be locked;

storing the short message in a locked short message storage area inresponse to determining that the short message should be locked; and

displaying a locked short message session containing the short messagein a short message displaying interface, wherein the short messagedisplaying interface is used for displaying the locked short messagesession and an unlocked short message session containing another shortmessage stored in an unlocked short message storage area. The lockedshort message storage area is different from the unlocked short messagestorage area.

According to various embodiments of the present disclosure, an apparatusfor managing a short message is provided. The apparatus includes:

a processor; and

a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium storing instructionswhich are executable by the processor to:

determine whether a short message should be locked;

store the short message in a locked short message storage area inresponse to determining that the short message should be locked; and

display a locked short message session containing the short message in ashort message displaying interface, wherein the short message displayinginterface is used for displaying the locked short message session and anunlocked short message session containing another short message storedin an unlocked short message storage area. The locked short messagestorage area is different from the unlocked short message storage area.

According to various embodiments of the present disclosure, anon-transitory computer-readable storage medium comprising a set ofinstructions for managing a short message is provided, the set ofinstructions to direct a processor to perform acts of:

determining whether a short message should be locked;

storing the short message in a locked short message storage area inresponse to determining that the short message should be locked; and

displaying a locked short message session containing the short messagein a short message displaying interface; wherein the short messagedisplaying interface is used for displaying the locked short messagesession and an unlocked short message session containing another shortmessage stored in an unlocked short message storage area. The lockedshort message storage area is different from the unlocked short messagestorage area.

Other aspects or embodiments of the present disclosure can be understoodby those skilled in the art in light of the description, the claims, andthe drawings of the present disclosure.

Further areas of applicability will become apparent from the descriptionprovided herein. The description and specific examples in this summaryare intended for purposes of illustration only and are not intended tolimit the scope of the present disclosure.

DRAWINGS

The drawings described herein are for illustrative purposes only ofselected embodiments and not all possible implementations, and are notintended to limit the scope of the present disclosure.

Features of the present disclosure are illustrated by way of example andnot limited in the following figures, in which like numerals indicatelike elements, in which:

FIG. 1 shows an example of a method for managing a short messageaccording to various embodiments;

FIG. 2 shows another example of the method for managing a short messageaccording to various embodiments;

FIG. 3 shows an example of a short message displaying interfaceaccording to various embodiments;

FIG. 4 shows an example of a method for managing a short messageaccording to various embodiments;

FIG. 5 shows an example of a short message displaying interfaceaccording to various embodiments;

FIG. 6 shows an example of a displaying interface of a locked shortmessage according to various embodiments;

FIG. 7 shows an example of a method for managing a short messageaccording to various embodiments;

FIG. 8 shows an example of an apparatus for managing a short messageaccording to various embodiments;

FIG. 9 shows another example of an apparatus for managing a shortmessage according to various embodiments;

FIG. 10 shows still another example of an apparatus for managing a shortmessage according to various embodiments;

FIG. 11 shows an example of a determining module according to variousembodiments;

FIG. 12 shows yet another example of an apparatus for managing a shortmessage according to various embodiments;

FIG. 13 shows yet another example of an apparatus for managing a shortmessage according to various embodiments;

FIG. 14 shows yet another example of an apparatus for managing a shortmessage according to various embodiments;

FIG. 15 shows yet another example of an apparatus for managing a shortmessage according to various embodiments; and

FIG. 16 shows an example of a terminal according to various embodiments.

Corresponding reference numerals indicate corresponding parts throughoutthe several views of the drawings.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Example embodiments will now be described more fully with reference tothe accompanying drawings.

The preset disclosure will be described in further detail hereinafterwith reference to accompanying drawings and examples to make thetechnical method and merits therein clearer.

For simplicity and illustrative purposes, the present disclosure isdescribed by referring to examples. In the following description,numerous details are set forth in order to provide a thoroughunderstanding of the present disclosure. It will be readily apparenthowever, that the present disclosure may be practiced without limitationto these details. In other instances, some methods and structures havenot been described in detail so as not to unnecessarily obscure thepresent disclosure. As used herein, the term “includes” means includesbut not limited to, the term “including” means including but not limitedto. The term “based on” means based at least in part on. In addition,the terms “a” and “an” are intended to denote at least one of aparticular element.

FIG. 1 shows an example of a method for managing a short messageaccording to various embodiments of the present disclosure. As shown inFIG. 1, the method includes the following.

Block 101: It is determined whether a short message should be locked.

Block 102: If the short message should be locked, the short message islocked according to a locking password corresponding to the shortmessage to obtain a locked short message.

Block 103: The locked short message is stored in a locked short messagestorage area, and the locked short message and an unlocked short messageare displayed in a short message displaying interface, wherein theunlocked short message is stored in an unlocked short message storagearea.

According to various embodiments, the short message to be locked may bea newly received short message. At this time, the short message isreceived from a short message server and is then taken as the shortmessage to be locked. According to various embodiments, the shortmessage to be locked may be a short message stored in the unlocked shortmessage storage area. At this time, after the short message is stored inthe locked short message storage area, the method may further delete theshort message from the unlocked short message storage area. According tovarious embodiments, determining whether the short message should belocked may include comparing a sender number of the short message with apreconfigured locking number. If the sender number matches with thepreconfigured locking number, it is determined that the short messageshould be locked.

According to various embodiments, before locking the short messageaccording to the locking password corresponding to the short message tobe locked, the locking number and the locking password corresponding tothe locking number are configured and stored in advance. According tovarious embodiments, before displaying the locked short message in theshort message displaying interface, the method may further includedetermining a short message session corresponding to a number of theshort message and adding the locked short message to the short messagesession to obtain an updated short message session, wherein differentnumbers correspond to different short message sessions. The updatedshort message session is added to a short message list containing anunlocked short message in the unlocked short message storage area.Displaying the locked short message and the unlocked short message inthe unlocked short message displaying interface includes displaying theshort message list containing the updated short message session, anddisplaying a locking identifier corresponding to the updated shortmessage session.

After the locked short message and the unlocked short message aredisplayed in the short message displaying interface, the method mayfurther include:

obtaining a displaying instruction for displaying the locked shortmessage, popping out a password inputting box according to thedisplaying instruction;

obtaining a password input in the password input box, comparing theinput password with the preconfigured locking password corresponding tothe locked short message; and

if they match, obtaining and displaying details of the locked shortmessage.

After the locked short message is stored in the locked short messagestorage area, the method may further include:

obtaining an unlocking instruction for unlocking the locked shortmessage, deleting the locked short message from the locked short messagestorage area, and unlocking the locked short message according to thelocking password corresponding to the locked short message to obtain anunlocked short message; and

storing the unlocked short message in the unlocked short message storagearea.

According to various embodiments, a locking password is added to theshort message to be locked. The locked short message is displayed in theshort message displaying interface together with unlocked shortmessages. Thus, the user is not required to find the locked shortmessage in a deep interface. The method provided by the examplefacilitates the management of the short message.

FIG. 2 shows another example of a method for managing a short messageaccording to various embodiments of the present disclosure. As shown inFIG. 2, the method includes the following.

Block 201: It is determined whether a short message should be locked.

Block 202: If the short message should be locked, the short message isstored in a locked short message storage area.

Block 203: A locked short message session containing the short messageis displayed in a short message displaying interface, wherein the shortmessage displaying interface is used for displaying the locked shortmessage session and an unlocked short message session containing anothershort message stored in an unlocked short message storage area. Thelocked short message storage area is different from the unlocked shortmessage storage area.

According to various embodiments, the short message to be locked may bea newly received short message. At this time, the short message isreceived from a short message server and then is stored in the lockedshort message storage area. According to various embodiments, the shortmessage to be locked may be a short message stored in the unlocked shortmessage storage area. At this time, after the locked short message isstored in the locked short message storage area, the method may furtherdelete the short message from the unlocked short message storage area.According to various embodiments, the short message to be locked may bea short message newly sent by the user. At this time, the newly-sentshort message is stored in the locked short message storage area.

According to various embodiments, determining whether the short messageshould be locked may include:

comparing a sender number of the short message with a preconfigurednumber, and, if the sender number matches with the preconfigured number,determining that the short message should be locked; or

comparing a receiver number of the short message with a preconfigurednumber, and, if the receiver number matches with the preconfigurednumber, determining that the short message should be locked.

According to various embodiments, a locking number and a lockingpassword corresponding to the locking number are configured and storedin advance. According to various embodiments, before displaying theshort message session containing the short message in the short messagedisplaying interface, the method may further include determining theshort message session corresponding to the short message, adding theshort message to the short message session.

Displaying the locked short message session containing the short messagein the short message displaying interface includes:

displaying a sender corresponding to the locked short message sessionand a receiving time of a latest short message in the locked shortmessage session; or

displaying a receiver corresponding to locked short message session anda sending time of a latest short message in the locked short messagesession.

The locked short message session is displayed differently from anunlocked short message session. In particular, for the locked shortmessage session containing a short message sent by a locking number,merely the sender and the receiving time of the short message aredisplayed. For example, as shown in FIG. 3, short message sessions301˜304 are displayed, wherein short message sessions 301 and 303 areunlocked short message sessions and short message sessions 302 and 304are locked short message sessions. For the locked short message session,merely name/telephone number of the sender, avatar of the sender, andthe receiving time of the latest short message in the locked shortmessage session are displayed. For the locked short message session 302,the sender name is B and the receiving time of a latest short messagesent by B is 9:00. For the unlocked short message session, however, inaddition to the sender and the receiving time, an abstract of a latestshort message in the unlocked short message session is furtherdisplayed. As shown in 301 and 303 in FIG. 3, the abstract is denoted by“xxxxxxxx”.

According to various embodiments, after displaying the locked shortmessage in the short message displaying interface, the method furtherincludes:

obtaining a displaying instruction for displaying the locked shortmessage in the locked short message session, and displaying a passwordinput area in response to the displaying instruction;

obtaining a password input in the password input area, comparing thepassword with the preconfigured password according to the locked shortmessage; and

if they match, obtaining and displaying the locked short message in thelocked short message session.

According to various embodiments, after the short message is stored inthe locked short message storage area, the method may further include:

obtaining an unlocking instruction for unlocking the short message inthe locked short message session; and

storing the short message in the unlocked short message storage area anddeleting the short message from the locked short message storage area.

FIG. 4 shows another example of a method for managing a short messageaccording to various embodiments of the present disclosure. As shown inFIG. 4, the method includes the following.

Block 401: At least one locking number and a locking passwordcorresponding to each locking number are configured and stored inadvance. In this block, in order to manage short messages, a lockingnumber is configured in advance. The present disclosure does notrestrict the manner for configuring the locking number. For example, aconfiguring interface may be provided to the user. The user configures atelephone number as the locking number. The terminal detects theconfiguration of the user on the configuring interface, obtains thetelephone number configured by the user, and configures the telephonenumber as the locking number.

In order to protect user's privacy, after the locking number isconfigured, a locking password corresponding to the locking number isconfigured. The configuration manner of the locking password is also notrestricted in the present disclosure. The user may configure the samelocking password for several locking numbers or configure a uniquelocking password for each locking number.

Suppose that the locking numbers configured by the user include 123456,234567, and 345678. The locking password corresponding to the lockingnumber 123456 is “xyz”. The locking password corresponding to thelocking number 234567 is “abc”. The locking password corresponding tothe locking number 345678 is “mno”. Alternatively, the locking numbers123456, 234567 and 345678 may be configured with the same lockingpassword, e.g. “fgh”.

In this block, the locking number and the locking password correspondingto the locking number are configured in advance. Therefore, after thelocking number and the locking password are configured, the lockingnumber and the locking password are stored. The storing manner of thelocking number and the locking password are not restricted in thepresent disclosure.

Block 401 may be not performed each time a short message is managed.Thereafter, the locking number and the locking password corresponding tothe locking number may be directly utilized to manage short messages.When the locking number or the locking password should be updated, block401 may be performed again.

Block 402: It is determined whether a short message should be locked. Inthis block, the short message may be, but is not limited to, a shortmessage stored in an unlocked short message storage area, or anewly-received short message. For the short message stored in theunlocked short message storage area, the short message may be selectedfrom the unlocked short message storage area and then a determination ismade on whether to lock the selected short message. For thenewly-received short message, a determination is made on whether to lockthe newly-received short message.

For the newly-received short message, the determination on whether tolock the short message may include the following:

comparing a sender number of the newly-received short message with thepreconfigured locking number; and

if the sender number of the newly-received short message matches withthe preconfigured locking number, determining that the newly-receivedshort message should be locked.

Suppose that there are three newly-received short messages, shortmessage 1, short message 2 and short message 3. The sender number of theshort message 1 is 123456, the sender number of the short message 2 is234567 and the sender number of the short message 3 is 345678. Thepreconfigured locking numbers include 123456 and 234567. The sendernumbers of the short messages 1, 2, and 3 are compared with thepreconfigured locking numbers. Since the sender number 123456 of theshort message 1 matches with the preconfigured locking number 123456, itis determined to lock the short message 1. Since the sender number234567 of the short message 2 matches with the preconfigured lockingnumber 234567, it is determined to lock the short message 2. Since thesender number 345678 of the short message 3 does not match with anypreconfigured number, the short message 3 is not locked.

After a new short message is received, in order to facilitate themanagement of the new short message, various embodiments of the presentdisclosure include a process of storing the new short message. Thestoring manner of the new short message is not restricted in the presentdisclosure. Two example storing manners are described hereinafter.

In a first manner, the new short message is stored in the unlocked shortmessage storage area. If it is determined that the new short message inthe unlocked short message storage area needs to be locked, this newshort message is moved to the locked short message storage area from theunlocked short message storage area.

In a second manner, after a new short message is received, if the newshort message is not to be locked, the new short message is stored inthe unlocked short message storage area. If the new short message shouldbe locked, the new short message is stored in the locked short messagestorage area.

In the case that the short message to be locked is a short messagestored in the unlocked short message storage area, various embodimentsof the present disclosure provide an option for locking the shortmessage. If the user desires to lock the short message, the user mayselect the option to lock the short message. After detecting selectionof the option by the user, the selected short message is taken as ashort message to be locked.

Block 403: If it is determined that the short message should be locked,the short message is locked according to the preconfigured lockingpassword corresponding to the short message to obtain a locked shortmessage. In this block, since the locking password has been configuredcorresponding to each locking number in block 401, once it is determinedthat a short message should be locked, block 403 may lock the shortmessage according to the locking password corresponding to the shortmessage to obtain the locked short message.

Block 404: The locked short message is stored in a locked short messagestorage area and is displayed in a short message displaying interfacetogether with an unlocked short message.

After a short message is locked, the locked short message and theunlocked short message need to be stored in different areas forfacilitating management of the locked short message and the unlockedshort message. The present disclosure does not restrict the detailedpositions that the locked short message and the unlocked short messageare stored, if only the locked short message storage area and theunlocked short message storage area are different.

In the case that the short message to be locked is a newly-receivedshort message, if the new short message needs to be locked, the shortmessage is locked and the locked short message is stored in the lockedshort message storage area. In the case that the short message to belocked is an unlocked short message stored in the unlocked short messagestorage area, the short message is stored in the locked short messagestorage area after being locked. The short message is then deleted fromthe unlocked short message storage area, so as to avoid that the sameshort message is saved as both a locked short message and an unlockedshort message.

Further, after the locked short message is stored in the locked shortmessage storage area, the locked short message is displayed in the shortmessage displaying interface to facilitate viewing and managing of thelocked short message. Since the locked short message storage area maystore more than one locked short message, it is inconvenient for theuser to directly display the locked short messages in the short messagedisplaying interface. Therefore, before displaying the locked shortmessage and the unlocked short message in the unlocked short messagestorage area, the short message session corresponding to the lockedshort message is determined, so as to display the locked short messagessent by the same locking number in one locked short message session. Inorder to differentiate the locked short messages sent by differentlocking numbers, the locked short message sessions corresponding todifferent locking numbers are different. The short message session maybe a displaying item in the short message displaying interface. Theshort message displaying interface may include multiple short messagesessions, and each short message session includes all short messagessent by one number. If one short message session is selected, all shortmessages included in the selected short message session may bedisplayed.

In order to differentiate the locked short message and the unlockedshort message displayed in the short message displaying interface,various embodiments of the present disclosure further include somepre-processing before displaying the unlocked short message in the shortmessage displaying interface. The pre-processing includes the following:

the locked short message session corresponding to the sender number ofthe locked short message is determined, adding the locked short messageto the determined locked short message session to obtain an updatedlocked short message session, wherein different numbers correspond todifferent locked short message sessions; and

displaying the updated locked short message session in the short messagedisplaying interface.

Suppose that there are 5 locked short messages stored in the lockedshort message storage area, respectively, locked short messages 1, 2, 3,4, and 5. The locked short message 1 corresponds to locking number123456, the locked short message 2 corresponds to locking number 234567,the locked short message 3 corresponds to locking number 234567, thelocked short message 4 corresponds to locking number 123456, and thelocked short message 5 corresponds to locking number 234567. When theabove locked short messages are added into the locked short messagesessions which may contain other locked short messages in the lockedshort message storage area, locked short messages 1 and 4 are added tothe same locked short message session since both of them correspond tothe locking number 123456. The locked short messages 2, 3, and 5 areadded to the same locked short message session since both of themcorrespond to the locking number 234567.

After the above pre-processing, the locked short message may bedisplayed in the short message displaying interface.

According to various embodiments, the updated locked short messagesession is displayed in the short message displaying interface. Theshort message displaying interface may further contain an unlocked shortmessage session. In order to facilitate the user to differentiate thelocked short message and the unlocked short message, a lockingidentifier corresponding to the locked short message session may bedisplayed.

The short message displaying interface includes the updated locked shortmessage session and may also include an unlocked short message session.When displayed, the locked short message session and the unlocked shortmessage session are sorted according to sending/receiving time of alatest short message of each. The unlocked short message session and thelocked short message session are then displayed in the short messagedisplaying interface according to a sorted result.

Hereinafter the above procedure is described with reference to variousembodiments.

As shown in FIG. 5, the short message session with a star is a lockedshort message session. The short message session without a star is anunlocked short message session. It can be seen from FIG. 5 that thereceiving time of a latest short message in the short message session“short message 1” is 10:00. The receiving time of a latest short messagein the short message session “short message 2” is 9:00. The receivingtime of a latest short message in the short message session “shortmessage 3” is 8:00. The receiving time of a latest short message in theshort message session “short message 4” is 7:00. Therefore, in the shortmessage displaying interface as shown in FIG. 5, the sequence of theshort message sessions is as follows: “short message 1”, “short message2”, “short message 3”, “short message 4”.

Further, after the locked short message is stored in the locked shortmessage storage area and is displayed in the short message displayinginterface, various embodiments of the present disclosure further providean operation of displaying details of the locked short message, suchthat the user can view the locked short message. According to variousembodiments, the details of the locked short message may be displayedvia a following manner.

In a first process, a displaying instruction for displaying a lockedshort message is obtained.

The present disclosure is not intended to restrict the manner forobtaining the displaying instruction. For example, the user may select alocked short message to view. A terminal of the user obtains thedisplaying instruction for displaying the locked short message selectedby the user according to the user's selection operation.

In a second process, a password input box is displayed in response tothe displaying instruction.

After obtaining the displaying instruction, the terminal prompts apassword input box, such that the user may input the correspondingpassword in the password input box.

In a third process, the password input in the password input box isobtained and is compared with a preconfigured password corresponding tothe locked short message.

In a fourth process, if the input password matches with thepreconfigured password corresponding to the locked short message,details of the locked short message are obtained and displayed.

An example is given hereinafter to describe the above procedure.

As shown in FIG. 6, short message 1 is an unlocked short message andshort message 2 is a locked short message. If the user selects thelocked short message 2, the terminal detects the user's selectionoperation and prompts a password input box 601. The user inputs thepassword in the password input box 601. If it is determined that theinput password matches with the preconfigured password, the terminaldisplays the details of the locked short message.

Through the above, the user is able to view the details of the lockedshort message. However, the next time the user wants to view the detailsof the locked short message, the password has to be input again.

Various embodiments of the present disclosure further include anunlocking process, such that the user is not required to input thepassword again.

The unlocking of the short message may be implemented via a followingmanner.

In a first process, an unlocking instruction for unlocking a lockedshort message is obtained, the locked short message is deleted from thelocked short message storage area, and the locked short message isunlocked according to a corresponding locking password to obtain anunlocked short message.

According to various embodiments, an unlocking interface may beprovided. The user selects a locked short message on the unlockinginterface to generate the unlocking instruction. After detecting theunlocking operation of the user, the terminal obtains the unlockinginstruction. In addition, the user may also remove a locking number on aconfiguration interface, such that all short messages sent by thisnumber are unlocked. Thereafter, the short message sent by this numberis stored in the unlocked short message storage area as an unlockedshort message.

In a second process, the unlocked short message is stored in theunlocked short message storage area.

FIG. 7 shows an example of a method for managing a short messageaccording to various embodiments of the present disclosure. As shown inFIG. 7, the method includes the following.

Block 701: A locking number and a locking password corresponding to thelocking number are configured and stored in advance. This block issimilar to block 401 and is not repeated herein.

Block 702: It is determined whether a short message should be locked. Inthis block, the short message may be, but is not limited to, a shortmessage stored in an unlocked short message storage area, or anewly-received short message or a newly-sent short message. For theshort message stored in the unlocked short message storage area, theshort message may be selected from the unlocked short message storagearea and then a determination is made on whether the selected shortmessage should be locked. For the newly-received short message, adetermination is made on whether the newly-received short message shouldbe locked.

For the newly-received short message, the determination on whether theshort message should be locked may include the following:

comparing a sender number of the newly-received short message with thepreconfigured locking number; and

if the sender number of the newly-received short message matches withthe preconfigured locking number, determining that the newly-receivedshort message should be locked.

For the newly-sent short message, the determination on whether the shortmessage should be locked may include the following:

comparing a receiver number of the newly-sent short message with thepreconfigured locking number; and

if the receiver number of the newly-sent short message matches with thepreconfigured locking number, determining that the newly-sent shortmessage should be locked.

Block 703: If it is determined that the short message should be locked,the short message is stored in the locked short message storage area. Inthis block, since a locking password has been configured correspondingto each locking number in block 701, once it is determined that a shortmessage should be locked, block 703 may store the short message in thelocked short message storage area.

Block 704: A locked short message session containing the short messageis displayed in a short message displaying interface. The locked shortmessage session corresponding to the sender number or receiver number ofthe locked short message is determined and the short message is added tothe determined locked short message session to obtain an updated lockedshort message session, wherein different numbers correspond to differentlocked short message sessions. The updated locked short message sessionis displayed in the short message displaying interface.

Further, after the locked short message session containing the shortmessage is displayed in the short message displaying interface, variousembodiments of the present disclosure further provide an operation ofdisplaying details of the locked short message session, i.e., displayingthe short message in the locked short message session, such that theuser can view the contents of the short message in the locked shortmessage session. According to various embodiments, the details of thelocked short message may be displayed via the following manner.

In a first process, a displaying instruction for displaying the detailsof the locked short message session is obtained.

The present disclosure is not intended to restrict the manner forobtaining the displaying instruction. For example, the user may select alocked short message session to view. A terminal of the user obtains thedisplaying instruction for displaying the locked short message sessionselected by the user according to the user's selection operation.

In a second process, a password input area is displayed in response tothe displaying instruction.

After obtaining the displaying instruction, the terminal provides apassword input area to the user, such that the user may inputcorresponding password in the password input area. The password inputarea may be a password input page. The user may input a gesture passwordin the password input page to unlock the locked short message session.The password input area may also be a password input box which enablesthe user to input password using a keyboard.

In a third process, the password input in the password input area isobtained and is compared with a preconfigured password corresponding tothe locked short message session.

In a fourth process, if the input password matches with thepreconfigured password corresponding to the locked short messagesession, details of the locked short message session are obtained anddisplayed.

Through the above, the user is able to view the details of the lockedshort message session.

Various embodiments of the present disclosure further include a processof removing a locking number, such that a short message received from orsent to the locking number is not stored in the locked short messagestorage area any more.

In a first process, an unlocking instruction for removing a lockingnumber is obtained and the locking number is deleted from a list oflocking numbers. According to various embodiments, an unlockinginterface may be provided. The user selects a locking number on theunlocking interface to generate the unlocking instruction. Afterdetecting the unlocking operation of the user, the terminal obtains theunlocking instruction and is removed from the list of locking numbers.

In a second process, the short message corresponding to the lockingnumber is stored in the unlocked short message storage area and isdeleted from the locked short message storage area. Thereafter, theshort message received from or sent to this number is stored in theunlocked short message storage area as an unlocked short message.

FIG. 8 shows an example of an apparatus for managing a short messageaccording to various embodiments of the present disclosure. Theapparatus includes:

a determining module 801, to determine whether to lock a short message;

a locking module 802, to lock the short message according to apreconfigured locking password corresponding to the short message inresponse to determining that the short message should be locked, so asto obtain a locked short message;

a first storage module 803, to store the locked short message in alocked short message storage area; and

a first displaying module 804, to display the locked short message in ashort message displaying interface.

FIG. 9 shows another example of an apparatus for managing a shortmessage according to various embodiments of the present disclosure. Asshown in FIG. 9, in addition to the determining module 801, the lockingmodule 802, the first storage module 803, and the first displayingmodule 804, the apparatus further includes a receiving module 805, toreceive the short message from a short message server.

FIG. 10 shows another example of an apparatus for managing a shortmessage according to various embodiments of the present disclosure. Asshown in FIG. 10, the apparatus further includes a deleting module 806,to delete the short message from an unlocked short message storage area.

FIG. 11 shows an example of the determining module 801 according tovarious embodiments of the present disclosure. As shown in FIG. 11, thedetermining module 801 includes:

a comparing unit 8011, to compare a sender number of the short messagewith a preconfigured locking number; and

a determining unit 8012, to determine to lock the short message inresponse to determining that the sender number of the short messagematches with the preconfigured locking number.

FIG. 12 shows another example of an apparatus for managing a shortmessage according to various embodiments of the present disclosure. Asshown in FIG. 12, the apparatus further includes:

a configuring module 807, to configure at least one locking number and alocking password corresponding to each locking number in advance; and

a second storage module 808, to store the at least one locking numberand the locking password corresponding to each locking number.

FIG. 13 shows another example of an apparatus for managing a shortmessage according to various embodiments of the present disclosure. Asshown in FIG. 13, the apparatus further includes:

a pre-processing module 809, to determine a short message sessioncorresponding to a sender number of the locked short message, add theshort message to the determined short message session to obtain anupdated short message session, and add the updated short message sessionin a short message list; wherein different numbers correspond todifferent short message sessions; and

the first displaying module 804 displays a short message list includingthe updated short message session in the short message displayinginterface, and displays a locking identifier corresponding to theupdated short message session.

As shown in FIG. 14, the apparatus may further include:

a first obtaining module 810, to obtain a displaying instruction fordisplaying the locked short message;

a popping module 811, to pop out a password input box according to thedisplaying instruction;

a second obtaining module 812, to obtain a password input in thepassword input box;

a matching module 813, to compare the password input in the passwordinput box with the preconfigured locking password;

a third obtaining module 814, to obtain details of the locked shortmessage in response to determining that the password input in thepassword input box matches with the preconfigured locking password; anda second displaying module 815, to display the details of the lockedshort message.

As shown in FIG. 15, the apparatus may further include:

a fourth obtaining module 816, to obtain an unlocking instruction forunlocking the locked short message;

a deleting module 817, to delete the locked short message from thelocked short message storage area;

an unlocking module 818, to unlock the locked short message according tothe unlocking instruction to obtain an unlocked short message; and

a third storage module 819, to store the unlocked short message in theunlocked short message storage area.

FIG. 16 shows an example of an apparatus for managing a short messageaccording to various embodiments of the present disclosure. Theapparatus 1600 includes:

a processor 1610;

a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium 1620 storinginstructions which are executable by the processor 1610 to:

determine whether a short message should be locked;

store the short message in a locked short message storage area inresponse to determining that the short message should be locked; and

display a locked short message session containing the short message in ashort message displaying interface, wherein the short message displayinginterface is used for displaying the locked short message session and anunlocked short message session containing another short message storedin an unlocked short message storage area. The locked short messagestorage area is different from the unlocked short message storage area.

The various modules and/or functions described above may be implementedby executing the above described machine-readable instructions on aprocessor.

The processor in the examples of the present disclosure may include oneor more processors for executing the sets of instructions stored in thememory. The processor is a hardware device, such as a central processingunit (CPU) or a micro controlling unit (MCU). The memory in the examplesof the present disclosure is a non-transitory processor-readable storagemedia, such as a RAM memory, flash memory, ROM memory, EPROM memory,EEPROM memory, registers, hard disk, a removable disk, a CD-ROM, or anyother form of non-transitory storage medium known in the art.

What has been described and illustrated herein is an example of thedisclosure along with some of its variations. The terms, descriptionsand figures used herein are set forth by way of illustration. Manyvariations are possible within the spirit and scope of the disclosure,which is intended to be defined by the following claims and theirequivalents.

The foregoing description of the embodiments has been provided forpurposes of illustration and description. It is not intended to beexhaustive or to limit the disclosure. Individual elements or featuresof a particular embodiment are generally not limited to that particularembodiment, but, where applicable, are interchangeable and can be usedin a selected embodiment, even if not specifically shown or described.The same may also be varied in many ways. Such variations are not to beregarded as a departure from the disclosure, and all such modificationsare intended to be included within the scope of the disclosure.

The foregoing description is merely illustrative in nature and is in noway intended to limit the disclosure, its application, or uses. Thebroad teachings of the disclosure can be implemented in a variety offorms. Therefore, while this disclosure includes particular examples,the true scope of the disclosure should not be so limited since othermodifications will become apparent upon a study of the drawings, thespecification, and the following claims. It should be understood thatone or more steps within a method may be executed in different order (orconcurrently) without altering the principles of the present disclosure.Further, although each of the embodiments is described above as havingcertain features, any one or more of those features described withrespect to any embodiment of the disclosure can be implemented in and/orcombined with features of any of the other embodiments, even if thatcombination is not explicitly described. In other words, the describedembodiments are not mutually exclusive, and permutations of one or moreembodiments with one another remain within the scope of this disclosure.

Spatial and functional relationships between elements (for example,between modules, circuit elements, semiconductor layers, etc.) aredescribed using various terms, including “connected,” “engaged,”“coupled,” “adjacent,” “next to,” “on top of,” “above,” “below,” and“disposed.” Unless explicitly described as being “direct,” when arelationship between first and second elements is described in the abovedisclosure, that relationship can be a direct relationship where noother intervening elements are present between the first and secondelements, but can also be an indirect relationship where one or moreintervening elements are present (either spatially or functionally)between the first and second elements. As used herein, the phrase atleast one of A, B, and C should be construed to mean a logical (A OR BOR C), using a non-exclusive logical OR, and should not be construed tomean “at least one of A, at least one of B, and at least one of C.”

In the figures, the direction of an arrow, as indicated by thearrowhead, generally demonstrates the flow of information (such as dataor instructions) that is of interest to the illustration. For example,when element A and element B exchange a variety of information butinformation transmitted from element A to element B is relevant to theillustration, the arrow may point from element A to element B. Thisunidirectional arrow does not imply that no other information istransmitted from element B to element A. Further, for information sentfrom element A to element B, element B may send requests for, or receiptacknowledgements of, the information to element A.

In this application, including the definitions below, the term “module”or the term “controller” may be replaced with the term “circuit.” Theterm “module” may refer to, be part of, or include: an ApplicationSpecific Integrated Circuit (ASIC); a digital, analog, or mixedanalog/digital discrete circuit; a digital, analog, or mixedanalog/digital integrated circuit; a combinational logic circuit; afield programmable gate array (FPGA); a processor circuit (shared,dedicated, or group) that executes code; a memory circuit (shared,dedicated, or group) that stores code executed by the processor circuit;other suitable hardware components that provide the describedfunctionality; or a combination of some or all of the above, such as ina system-on-chip.

The module may include one or more interface circuits. In some examples,the interface circuits may include wired or wireless interfaces that areconnected to a local area network (LAN), the Internet, a wide areanetwork (WAN), or combinations thereof. The functionality of any givenmodule of the present disclosure may be distributed among multiplemodules that are connected via interface circuits. For example, multiplemodules may allow load balancing. In a further example, a server (alsoknown as remote, or cloud) module may accomplish some functionality onbehalf of a client module.

The term code, as used above, may include software, firmware, and/ormicrocode, and may refer to programs, routines, functions, classes, datastructures, and/or objects. The term shared processor circuitencompasses a single processor circuit that executes some or all codefrom multiple modules. The term group processor circuit encompasses aprocessor circuit that, in combination with additional processorcircuits, executes some or all code from one or more modules. Referencesto multiple processor circuits encompass multiple processor circuits ondiscrete dies, multiple processor circuits on a single die, multiplecores of a single processor circuit, multiple threads of a singleprocessor circuit, or a combination of the above. The term shared memorycircuit encompasses a single memory circuit that stores some or all codefrom multiple modules. The term group memory circuit encompasses amemory circuit that, in combination with additional memories, storessome or all code from one or more modules.

The term memory circuit is a subset of the term computer-readablemedium. The term computer-readable medium, as used herein, does notencompass transitory electrical or electromagnetic signals propagatingthrough a medium (such as on a carrier wave); the term computer-readablemedium may therefore be considered tangible and non-transitory.Non-limiting examples of a non-transitory, tangible computer-readablemedium are nonvolatile memory circuits (such as a flash memory circuit,an erasable programmable read-only memory circuit, or a mask read-onlymemory circuit), volatile memory circuits (such as a static randomaccess memory circuit or a dynamic random access memory circuit),magnetic storage media (such as an analog or digital magnetic tape or ahard disk drive), and optical storage media (such as a CD, a DVD, or aBlu-ray Disc).

The apparatuses and methods described in this application may bepartially or fully implemented by a special purpose computer created byconfiguring a general purpose computer to execute one or more particularfunctions embodied in computer programs. The functional blocks andflowchart elements described above serve as software specifications,which can be translated into the computer programs by the routine workof a skilled technician or programmer.

The computer programs include processor-executable instructions that arestored on at least one non-transitory, tangible computer-readablemedium. The computer programs may also include or rely on stored data.The computer programs may encompass a basic input/output system (BIOS)that interacts with hardware of the special purpose computer, devicedrivers that interact with particular devices of the special purposecomputer, one or more operating systems, user applications, backgroundservices, background applications, etc.

The computer programs may include: (i) descriptive text to be parsed,such as HTML (hypertext markup language) or XML (extensible markuplanguage), (ii) assembly code, (iii) object code generated from sourcecode by a compiler, (iv) source code for execution by an interpreter,(v) source code for compilation and execution by a just-in-timecompiler, etc. As examples only, source code may be written using syntaxfrom languages including C, C++, C #, Objective-C, Swift, Haskell, Go,SQL, R, Lisp, Java®, Fortran, Perl, Pascal, Curl, OCaml, Javascript®,HTML5 (Hypertext Markup Language 5th revision), Ada, ASP (Active ServerPages), PHP (PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor), Scala, Eiffel, Smalltalk,Erlang, Ruby, Flash®, Visual Basic®, Lua, MATLAB, SIMULINK, and Python®.

None of the elements recited in the claims are intended to be ameans-plus-function element within the meaning of 35 U.S.C. § 112(f)unless an element is expressly recited using the phrase “means for,” orin the case of a method claim using the phrases “operation for” or “stepfor.”

1.-17. (canceled)
 18. A method for managing a short message, comprising:determining whether a sender number or a receiver number of a shortmessage matches with a preconfigured locking number; upon determiningthat the sender number or the receiver number of the short messagematches the preconfigured locking number, locking the short messageaccording to a preconfigured locking password to obtain a locked shortmessage; determining a locked short message session corresponding to asender number or a receiver number and, upon determining that a shortmessage that has been locked is under the identical sender number or theidentical receiver number, adding the locked short message in thedetermined locked short message session; displaying, in a short messagedisplaying interface, the determined locked short message sessioncontaining locked short messages under the identical sender number orthe identical receiver number; and in response to the locked shortmessage session being selected, displaying all of the locked shortmessages included in the locked short message session when a passwordinput matches with the preconfigured locking password.
 19. The method ofclaim 18, further comprising: displaying, in the short messagedisplaying interface, an unlocked short message session containing anunlocked short message.
 20. The method of claim 19, further comprising:storing the locked short message in a locked short message storage area;and storing the unlocked short message in an unlocked short messagestorage area, the locked short message storage area being different fromthe unlocked short message storage area.
 21. The method of claim 18,further comprising: before determining whether the sender number or thereceiver number of the short message matches with the preconfiguredlocking number, configuring and storing the locking number and thelocking password corresponding to the locking number.
 22. The method ofclaim 21, wherein configuring and storing the locking number and thelocking password corresponding to the locking number, includes:configuring and storing a first locking number and a first lockingpassword corresponding to the first locking number; and configuring andstoring a second locking number and a second locking passwordcorresponding to the second locking number, the first locking numberbeing different from the second locking number, and the first lockingpassword being different from the second locking password.
 23. Themethod of claim 21, wherein configuring and storing the locking numberand the locking password corresponding to the locking number, includes:configuring and storing a first locking number and a first lockingpassword corresponding to the first locking number; and configuring andstoring a second locking number and a second locking passwordcorresponding to the second locking number, the first locking numberbeing different from the second locking number, and the first lockingpassword being identical to the second locking password.
 24. The methodof claim 18, wherein, in response to the locked short message sessionbeing selected, displaying all of the locked short messages included inthe locked short massage session when the password input matches withthe preconfigured locking password, includes: providing a password inputarea in response to the locked short message session being selected;obtaining the password input in the password input area, and comparingthe input password with the preconfigured locking password; and when theinput password matches with the preconfigured locking password,displaying all of the locked short messages included in the locked shortmessage session.
 25. The method of claim 19, further comprising:displaying a locking identifier corresponding to the locked shortmessage session.
 26. The method of claim 18, wherein, in response to thelocked short message session being selected, displaying all of thelocked short messages included in the locked short massage session whenthe password input matches with the preconfigured locking password,includes: sorting the locked short messages according to sending time orreceiving time of the locked short messages; and displaying the sortedlocked short messages included in the locked short massage session whenthe password input matches with the preconfigured locking password. 27.The method of claim 18, wherein the short message displaying interfaceincludes a plurality of the locked short message sessions, and themethod further comprises: sorting the plurality of the locked shortmessage sessions according to sending time or receiving time of a latestlocked short message in each of the plurality of the locked shortmessage sessions; and displaying, in the short message displayinginterface, the sorted locked short message sessions.
 28. An apparatusfor managing a short message, comprising: a processor; and anon-transitory machine-readable storage medium for storing instructionswhich are executable by the processor, wherein the processor isconfigured to: determine whether a sender number or a receiver number ofa short message matches with a preconfigured locking number; upondetermining that the sender number or the receiver number of the shortmessage matches the preconfigured locking number, lock the short messageaccording to a preconfigured locking password to obtain a locked shortmessage; determine a locked short message session corresponding to asender number or a receiver number and, upon determining that a shortmessage that has been locked is under the identical sender number or theidentical receiver number, add the locked short message in thedetermined locked short message session; display, in a short messagedisplaying interface, the determined locked short message sessioncontaining locked short messages under the identical sender number orthe identical receiver number; and in response to the locked shortmessage session being selected, display all of the locked short messagesincluded in the locked short message session when a password inputmatches with the preconfigured locking password.
 29. The apparatus ofclaim 28, wherein the processor is further configured for: displaying,in the short message displaying interface, an unlocked short messagesession containing an unlocked short message.
 30. The apparatus of claim29, wherein the processor is further configured for: storing the lockedshort message in a locked short message storage area; and storing theunlocked short message in an unlocked short message storage area, thelocked short message storage area being different from the unlockedshort message storage area.
 31. The apparatus of claim 28, wherein theprocessor is further configured for: before determining whether thesender number or the receiver number of the short message matches withthe preconfigured locking number, configuring and storing the lockingnumber and the locking password corresponding to the locking number. 32.The apparatus of claim 31, wherein the processor is further configuredfor: configuring and storing a first locking number and a first lockingpassword corresponding to the first locking number; and configuring andstoring a second locking number and a second locking passwordcorresponding to the second locking number, the first locking numberbeing different from the second locking number, and the first lockingpassword being identical to the second locking password.
 33. Theapparatus of claim 28, wherein the processor is further configured for:providing a password input area in response to the locked short messagesession being selected; obtaining the password input in the passwordinput area, and comparing the input password with the preconfiguredlocking password; and when the input password matches with thepreconfigured locking password, displaying all of the locked shortmessages included in the locked short message session.
 34. The apparatusof claim 29, wherein the processor is further configured for: displayinga locking identifier corresponding to the locked short message session.35. The apparatus of claim 28, wherein the processor is furtherconfigured for: sorting the locked short messages according to sendingtime or receiving time of the locked short messages; and displaying thesorted locked short messages included in the locked short massagesession when the password input matches with the preconfigured lockingpassword.
 36. The apparatus of claim 28, wherein the short messagedisplaying interface includes a plurality of the locked short messagesessions, and the processor is further configured for: sorting theplurality of the locked short message sessions according to sending timeor receiving time of a latest locked short message in each of theplurality of the locked short message sessions; and displaying, in theshort message displaying interface, the sorted locked short messagesessions.
 37. A non-transitory computer-readable storage mediumcomprising a set of instructions for managing a short message, the setof instructions being executed to direct at least one processor to:determine whether a sender number or a receiver number of a shortmessage matches with a preconfigured locking number; upon determiningthat the sender number or the receiver number of the short messagematches the preconfigured locking number, lock the short messageaccording to a preconfigured locking password to obtain a locked shortmessage; determine a locked short message session corresponding to asender number or a receiver number and, upon determining that a shortmessage that has been locked is under the identical sender number or theidentical receiver number, add the locked short message in thedetermined locked short message session; display, in a short messagedisplaying interface, the determined locked short message sessioncontaining locked short messages under the identical sender number orthe identical receiver number; and in response to the locked shortmessage session being selected, display all of the locked short messagesincluded in the locked short message session when a password inputmatches with the preconfigured locking password.